Weekend Box Office Report: ‘Rogue One’ Rules the Top 10 For the Third Time

The headline here is that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story held onto the number one of the box office top 10 for the third weekend in a row, which was expected. However, the real story is that the past few days made for one of the most impressive weekends of the past year, closing out 2016 (and starting 2017) with a bang.

Film

Weekend

Per Screen

1

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

$49,539,000 (-22.6)

$11,917

$424,917,000

2

Sing

$42,820,000 (+21.4)

$10,628

$166,421,000

3

Passengers

$16,150,000 (+7.3)

$4,643

$61,450,000

4

Moana

$10,974,000 (+42.3)

$3,955

$210,033,000

5

Why Him?

$10,600,000 (-3.7)

$3,524

$34,618,000

6

Fences

$10,045,000 (+50.2)

$4,365

$29,747,000

7

La La Land

$9,530,000 (+65.7)

$12,707

$34,245,000

8

Assassin’s Creed

$8,600,000 (-16.3)

$2,870

$39,643,000

9

Manchester by the Sea

$4,239,000 (+53.1)

$3,515

$28,463,000

10

Collateral Beauty

$4,150,000 (-2.9)

$1,512

$25,791,000

From the look of things, movies became the go-to cure for the holiday hangover, with nearly every release in the top 10 strutting its stuff. Take Rogue One for starters, which dropped only 22% and grossed $49 million, propelling it to a domestic total of $424 million. By passing Captain America: Civil War’s $408 million domestic gross, the first standalone Star Wars movie just became the highest grossing live action film released in 2016 (at least in North America). In a week or two, it should surpass Finding Dory to take over the number one spot. Unless something goes wrong, it should take that same honor on the international stage as well.

While not as flashy as Rogue One, the success of Sing is also something to behold. While it didn’t open as huge as many of its competitors, the animated film has shown remarkable consistency over the past few weeks, once again proving that family movies tend to do slower, steadier business than geek-centric fare. Sing grossed $42 million over the weekend, a boost of 21%, for a $166 million total. With the January doldrums lying ahead, $300 million won’t be a problem at all. In fact, it will soon rocket past the otherwise hugely successful Moana, which celebrated another strong weekend in fourth place, grossing $10 million for a $210 million total. When it comes to Disney animated movies at the box office, it’s not Frozen and it’s not Zootopia. It’s Big Hero 6 and that’s perfectly fine.

The weekend was busy enough that even movies that suffered rough starts got a second wind. In third place, the critically maligned Passengers leapt 6% and grossed $16 million, bringing its domestic total to $61 million. That’s not enough to make it a hit (it still has a long way to go if it wants to break even), but it’s a suggestion that audiences could be warming to film, which was initially lost in space thanks to Rogue One. Why Him? also scored a strong second weekend, dropping only 3.7% and grossing $10 million for a $34 million haul. It won’t be a huge hit, but it’s now on track to perfectly fine in the long run.

Even last week’s big bomb, Assassin’s Creed, showcased a shred of admirable resilience, dropping a very small 16% to gross $8 million in eighth place. The film is still a flop and the latest video game movie to be dead-on-arrival, but at least it went down swinging.

This weekend’s golden touch also extended to the smaller movies, with Fences leading the pack in sixth place with a weekend gross of $10 million. The Denzel Washington drama has made $29 million so far, which is pretty remarkable. Also remarkable: The $9 million weekend gross and $34 million total for La La Land. Even the $4 million gross (and $28 million total) for Manchester by the Sea in ninth place deserves a second look. This is the first awards season in a long time where so many critical darlings are also proving to be juggernauts at the box office, holding their own against the winter blockbusters.

But there was no holiday miracle for Collateral Beauty, which was still a bomb in tenth place.